A South Korean survey ship has moved out of Japanese-claimed
waters near a group of disputed islets, Japan's coast guard said
Wednesday, following strong protests from Tokyo.
The ship, which began a maritime survey on Monday, entered
waters that Japan says fall within its exclusive economic zone
early Wednesday despite a demand from Tokyo that Seoul stop the
operation.
The South Koreans were surveying the waters surrounding a group
of rocky islets called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in Korea, which
lie roughly halfway between the two countries and over which the
two countries have a long-running ownership dispute.
The "Haeyang 2000" left Japan's claimed territorial waters,
about 22 kilometers from the islets, at around 2 PM (05:00GMT), the
coast guard said in a statement.
But the vessel remained within Japan's exclusive economic zone,
where a Japanese patrol boat was monitoring it, according to Japan
Coast Guard official Naoki Mori.
The South Korean ship entered the Japanese-claimed waters at
6:41 AM Wednesday (21:41 GMT Tuesday). It was intercepted by a
Japanese patrol boat soon after, the coast guard said.
Japan demanded that South Korea halt the operation, but the
survey ship continued its work in the disputed waters.
"That South Korea carried out the maritime survey despite
protest from Japan... is extremely regrettable and we demand its
immediate termination," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told
reporters Wednesday.
South Korea, meanwhile, claimed the Japanese patrol boat had
entered South Korean waters.
South Korea's Yonhap News agency reported that the survey was
supposed to be completed Wednesday, but Kim Ok-soo, an official at
the National Oceanographic Research Institute, said the survey will
continue until July 17.
(China Daily July 6, 2006)
